I'd had another nightmare last night.
Or so I found out, snapping upright in the back of Baby as Dean shouted for us to wake up.
As I was upright I thought about the dream. It had been something about the Bloody Mary...but also it was about my sister. She'd been in Purgatory, not Hell. She was running from something...something dark. A demon? Something else that worked in shadows?
"I take it I was having a nightmare." Sam remarked.
"Yeah, both of you." Dean looked over his shoulder to me.
"Shut up." I complained. Pulling myself up, I narrowed my eyes towards the building. Anything was better than thinking about that dream...or my sister...or anything relating the two things. Thinking about Darcy hurt...there were better things to do with my time than think about where she was now.
"Hey, at least we got some sleep." Sam pointed out.
Which was true, as the older Winchester hadn't been sleeping much. He kept himself up either to watch us have nightmares- keep a check so that we'd be woken up otherwise-, or he was driving all night to our next locations. Sometimes he'd sleep if we managed to get a hotel room for a night- but then he was up worrying about Sam again.
With good reason, mind you. Despite all of this I was the only one of the three of us that knew why Sam was having those nightmares. They could have been an effect of the tragedy, yes, but at the rate these were going that became less likely. Now it was a result of his demon powers rising up.
Mine? It was fair to say the same thing. This wasn't my first time gifted with psychic dreams. The feel of them was very familiar in dream form. The only difference is that I could tell they were influenced by something demonic in nature.
Which just meant that the person I was living in was one of the demon children. Whoopie, just perfect. Why couldn't any records exist of this woman? Had she done that good a job erasing herself from everything? Raven Quinzel, couldn't you have left yourself just a hint?
"You know, sooner or later we're gonna have to talk about this." Dean told us.
"I choose later." I voted, climbing towards my door. Like, Season 2. Can we settle for season 2?
"Are we here?" Sam asked.
"Yup. Welcome to Toledo, Ohio." Dean stated.
Sam picked up the newspaper. I leaned over his shoulder to read it, my eyes still blearily from sleep. "So what do you think really happened to this guy?"
Dean shrugged. "That's what we're gonna find out. Let's go."
We all climbed out of the car.
==DG==
As we walked towards the morgue, I watched the doors with some trepidation. Not only was I nervous about the whole lie. Mostly because I myself had been a mortician once- and I had been territorial over the bodies. I'd refused to let others in to see the body unless they were related to the victim or my boss.
Which led to the conversation I had with the Winchesters, just before we walked inside.
"I have an idea how to get in." I told them.
Dean paused in his step, Sam following after him. "Alright. What's the angle?"
My eyes darted to the door. "You guys hide over there. I'll go in, then I'll tell you." Now- Sam looked ready to go along with it. It could've been because he knew I was a genius, or because he was too tired to properly argue. Dean wanted to argue. "Trust me, it'll work."
Dean darted his eyes from the morgue door to me, then back again.
"Hey- you wanna stand here all day, or what?" I prompted.
He sighed-conceding.
"Well go on." I invited, walking to the door. "I'll be a minute."
The brothers walked to the other side of the doors, hiding back the way we came. Once they were there, I got myself into character.
Puppies crying.
Stubbing your toe on a table.
Watching Mufasa die.
Watching any finale of Supernatural.
Watching any season of Sherlock. At all.
Remembering how long it'll be before the next season.
Okay- now I had tears in my eyes. I took a quick breath, focusing on the tears to get a couple down my cheeks.
With that handled I walked through the door. I added some soft sniffles-miming wiping my nose to make it look like I'd been holding it back for awhile.
I walked up to the tech's desk. He was just typing away on his computer.
Once I stood before him, I made another sniffle noise. He looked up at me, giving me a curious eyebrow before he saw the tears on my cheeks.
"Hello." I greeted, my voice having gone soft and just-just barely on the edge of crying. "Umm...I don't...my name is Beth. I umm." I paused, making it look like I was composing myself from breaking down in tears. "I'm here to see Steve-" Cutting myself off, I composed myself again. "Steven Shoemaker."
The tech gave me a weird look at that. "Relation to the deceased?"
"I was-" Swallowing heavily, I paused long enough to sound like putting myself together instead of coming up with a lie. "We were...we'd been going out for a few months. I didn't believe it when they told me he was dead, you know? Donna told me and I just- I was in shock. She told me- she told me this was where I could see him- because he was dead and that just wasn't fair-"
Cutting myself off again, I sighed. "Sorry. Sorry." I wiped at my eyes, thinking about more sad things to keep them coming. "Overshare. Gah!" Laughing nervously, I brushed my tear dampened hands on my jacket sleeves. "I'll just- I'll just go."
"No, no. It's okay." The tech stood up, becoming professional quite suddenly. He picked up a clipboard, walking around his desk. "Beth, right?"
I nodded. "Beth Carlton." Introduction made I held out my hand, again wiping off the tears that were still damp there.
The tech took my hand. He shook it gently. "You...you wanted to see him?"
Bracing myself, I nodded. "It's- I can't picture him dead. I need- I don't want to see him a funeral suit, you know? It's just too...not Steve."
The tech nodded, probably used to grieving families like this. "Look...Doc will be back in an hour. You can wait for him if you want?"
"Oh...you know, this was silly anyway. I should just- I can wait for the funeral- I don't want to bother anyone."
"No- no. It's...I'm sure Doc wouldn't mind."
I gave him a grateful smile. "If- if you're sure."
"Yeah. Come on. This way." He got up, walking to the door.
Wow...why the hell does crying work all the time?
==DG==
In the actual part of the morgue, I stood beside the laying table. The victim had a sheet over him still.
"Donna told me she found him." I spoke, in a soft voice. The tech glanced up at me. "Were his eyes really bleeding?"
"More than that." The tech answered. Moving the sheet back, he showed off Steven Shoemaker's blood stained face. "They practically liquefied."
"Oh...poor Donna." I sighed, putting my hands over my heart in sympathy. "How-" Swallowing a pretend lump in my throat I pointedly avoided looking at Steven. "How did he die?"
Not that I need to know.
I was watching it in my dream twenty minutes before we walked in here.
"Ah, Doc's not sure." The tech admitted with a wince. "He's thinking massive stroke, maybe an aneurysm? Something burst up in there, that's for sure."
"What...? How many ways can you die where the eyeballs explode?"
"Not just that, there was intense cerebral bleeding. This guy had more blood in his skull than anyone I've ever seen...Capillaries can burst. See a lot of bloodshot eyes with stroke victims." The tech added.
Loki's first death in the MCU.
My first heartbreak.
The look on Lilac's face as she heard her aunt was dead.
My face when I heard her aunt was dead.
As my eyes watered, the tech continued to talk.
"That's a first for me, but hey, I'm not the doctor." The tech offered as a weak joke.
I sniffled.
"Hey...are you okay?" The tech asked in a cautious voice.
"Ye-yes." I nodded my head, wiping away more tears. "Can you- can you cover?"
He understood. He covered Steven's face back up.
After letting out a shaky breath I gave the tech a thankful smile. "Thank you. I think- I think this helped."
"Sure." He smiled back, probably grateful I hadn't started sobbing. "No problem, ma'am."
"Well. Good day." Adjusting my bag, I walked back out the way I came to make it back to the Winchesters.
==DG==
As I caught up with them, I was still wiping crocodile tears off my cheeks.
"It's one of ours." I reported to them. "Guy had exploded eyeballs, and was alone in the house aside from his daughter. No medical explanation fits."
They gave me confused looks. "Wait you saw the body? That's what took so long?" Dean asked, annoyed.
"Duh." I replied.
"You said you'd come get us!"
"Uhh no I didn't." I countered.
"Yeah you did!"
"I said I'd go in, then tell you-"
"See!"
"I never said I'd tell you to come inside." I pointed out.
Dean's argument lost heat at that. Sam smirked at realizing they'd been played. "That's not what you said!"
I made an innocent face. "Ohh...not my fault you two couldn't piece it together."
Sam laughed at that.
"Why were you crying?" He asked, as we walked out the hospital with a pouting Dean.
"All men hate it when women cry." I admitted. "Plus I looked up a bunch of facts about the family before we got inside. Say the right facts, add the right amount of tears, and people believe you. Actors do it all the time."
Dean mocked the phrase behind our backs.
Sam nodded. "All right, let's go talk to the daughter."
==DG==
The three of us walked into the Shoemaker house. They were having the funeral now- though how they were doing so without the body I'll never understand.
"Feel like we're underdressed." Dean remarked. He fixed up his jacket so it was straight. Beside him, Sam was just searching for Donna.
"You two are. I feel bad for you." I remarked, tucking back some of my hair. My hands smoothed out the creases in my black jacket. I'd changed in the car into something black. My jeans were dark enough to seem black.
Sam rolled his eyes. "You can feel bad for people?"
"You're right, you're right." I agreed.
Dean walked up to a lone gentleman. "Excuse me, sir, you wouldn't happen to know where Donna Shoemaker is?"
The man nodded his head towards the backyard. "Yeah. This way."
I followed him. He showed us to the backyard, where Donna sat with her sister and friends. I thanked the man while the Winchesters walked ahead.
"You must be Donna, right?" Dean greeted.
"Yeah." The teen nodded.
"Hi, uh-we're really sorry." Sam spoke up.
"Really, so sorry." I told Donna.
Donna sniffled, staying strong despite having lost her father. "Thank you."
"I'm Sam, this is Raven and Dean." Sam introduced. Dean and I waved in greeting. "We worked with your dad."
I winced at the obvious lie- that any of these girls could see through.
"You did?" Donna asked, face scrunched up in confusion.
"Yeah. This whole thing. I mean, a stroke." Dean sighed.
Charlie was glaring at us now. "I don't think she really wants to talk about this right now-" Charlie interrupted.
"It's okay. I'm okay." Donna assured her friend.
"He didn't have any of the symptoms, last I saw him." I explained, trying to add more fact so we didn't look like the complete liars we were. "But...it was just a few weeks ago. Did you see them? Dizziness? Migraines?"
"No." Donna shook her head.
"That's because it wasn't a stroke." Lily argued, swirling around in her seat to face us.
"Lily, don't say that." Donna comforted her sister.
"What?" Sam asked Lily.
"I'm sorry, she's just upset." Donna tried to convince us.
"No, it happened because of me." Lily argued.
Donna shook her head. "Sweetie, it didn't."
"Lily." Sam knelt down at Lily's side, being the gold hearted boy everyone between Heaven and Hell knew. "Why would you say something like that?"
Lily braced herself. "Right before he died, I said it."
"You said what?" Sam asked, keeping his voice steady and assuring.
"Bloody Mary, three times in the bathroom mirror." Donna and her friends were reacting as normal teenagers would to hearing this old game. "She took his eyes, that's what she does."
"That's not why Dad died. This isn't your fault." Donna promised. Which was kinda true, because Bloody Mary would've killed them anyway.
"I think your sister's right, Lily. There's no way it could have been Bloody Mary. Your dad didn't say it, did he?" Dean pointed out.
Lily thought about it. "No, I don't think so."
Donna gave us thankful looks for that.
Charlie's was less thankful.
==DG==
Not gonna lie, Darcy and I used to play Bloody Mary all the time.
Let me be more clear, Darcy used to play Bloody Mary. She loved scaring the other girls in the group homes by jumping out at them after they said the phrase. Her favorite part was always the innocent act she'd play right after, to trick the matrons or foster parents that Darcy Anderson would never dream of scaring the other girls.
Seriously the hazing we got...
Only a handful of them actually deserved it.
...okay most of them did.
They were some fucked up girls in the group homes in a horror movie reality.
Personally, I hated Bloody Mary.
Mirrors and blood never went well together for me.
The Winchesters opened the door to the bathroom. Shoemaker's blood was still on the floor, staining it at this point.
"The Bloody Mary legend...Dad ever find any evidence that it was a real thing?" Sam asked his brother.
I stepped over the blood marks.
"Not that I know of." Dean answered. "Raven?" He prompted.
"...some." I shrugged.
"'Some'?" Sam questioned, .
"Well they're eyes weren't bleeding." I admitted. "But a lot of the other parts of the legend were true. Lots of people died in similar ways but it just turned out to be a messed up human. Every now again, there was the proper ghost."
"I mean, everywhere else all over the country, kids will play Bloody Mary, and as far as we know, nobody dies from it." Sam pointed out.
"As far as you know." I repeated back to him. "It's old now, chances were it wasn't always a sleepover game."
"Yeah, maybe everywhere it's just a story, but here it's actually happening." Dean added.
"The place where the legend began?" Sam guessed. Dean and I shrugged. I was checking out the window for anything. Dean checked the medicine cabinet. "But according to the legend, the person who says B-" The cabinet opened to put the mirror in Sam's face. He closed it. "The person who says you know what gets it. But here-"
"Shoemaker gets it instead, yeah." Dean stated.
"I mean-" I began, stopping myself.
"What?" Sam asked.
"Well technically, Lily invited it in. She brought it to her family. What happened next was pure speculation." I admitted. "Too many variants of Bloody Mary. I'll just shut up."
"Right." Sam nodded.
"Never heard anything like that before." Dean admitted. "Still, the guy did die right in front of the mirror, and the daughter's right. The way the legend goes, you know who scratches your eyes out."
"It's worth checking in to." Sam shrugged.
I walked out of the bathroom first, seeing Charlie coming up. I put on my sweetest smile. "Hi."
"What are you doing up here?" Charlie snapped.
"We-we, had to go to the bathroom." Dean excused from behind me.
"Together?" I added, giving him a questioning look. Dean winced.
"Who are you?" Charlie demanded.
"Like we said downstairs, we worked with Donna's dad." Dean excused.
"He was a day trader or something. He worked by himself." Charlie argued.
"No, I know, I meant-" Dean stumbled.
"And all those weird questions downstairs, what was that? So you tell me what's going on, or I start screaming." Charlie warned.
"All right, all right. We think something happened to Donna's dad." Sam answered.
"Yeah, a stroke." Charlie stated, like we were idiots. And they were.
"We think it was something worse than that." I stated.
"Like what?" Charlie asked.
"Honestly? We don't know yet. But we don't want it to happen to anyone else. That's the truth." Sam promised.
"So, if you're gonna scream, go right ahead." Dean advised.
"Who are you, cops?" Charlie questioned.
The three of us exchanged a look.
"Something like that." Dean answered.
"I'll tell you what. Here." Sam reached into his pocket for a card. He wrote down his number on it. "If you think of anything, you or your friends notice anything strange, out of the ordinary...just give us a call." He handed it to Charlie.
We left the Shoemaker house, research on minds.
==DG==
"All right, say Bloody Mary really is haunting this town." Dean began as we walked into the library. "There's gonna be some sort of proof-Like a local woman who died nasty."
"Yeah but a legend this widespread it's hard. I mean, there's like 50 versions of who she actually is." Sam pointed out.
"In some she's a witch, a mutilated bride, dead of sickness, cursed, and blah blah blah." I listed. "It's endless."
"Alright so what are we supposed to be looking for?" Dean asked us.
"Every version's got a few things in common. It's always a woman named Mary, and she always dies right in front of a mirror." Sam answered.
"So that's all we have to search for. As far back as the records go. A Mary who fits." I added.
Dean huffed. "Well that sounds annoying."
"No it won't be so bad, as long as we-"
"Ah crap." I complained. The computers were out of order.
"I take it back. This will be very annoying." Sam stated.
==DG==
"You killed that boy."
"Juh-" I yelped as I sat up in bed. My head hurt like a motherfucker. I checked my eyes, half expecting them to be bleeding.
We'd made it back to the motel after a few hours of research. We'd decide the library was at a loss for what we wanted. Sam and I had our own laptops, so we'd search on those. Why it took so long for us to put that together, who knows? We were sleep deprived, we were allowed a few stupidities.
"Why'd you let me fall asleep?" Sam asked, tiredly.
"Cause I'm an awesome brother."
"You're an asshole friend." I countered, rubbing at my eyes to get either the sleep out or the dream.
"Yeah." Dean agreed. "So what did you dream about?"
"Lollipops and candy canes." Sam snarked.
"Yeah, sure." Dean laughed dryly. "Raven?"
"Go choke on a drumstick." I snarked, because 'go suck a cock' wasn't fit for PG-14.
"Did you find anything?" Sam asked, to get us talking about anything else.
I pushed myself to my feet. If I couldn't get sleep, I'd get breakfast. Reaching into my Infinity Bag, I found a box with some packets of Little Bites muffins.
"Oh besides a whole new level of frustration?" Dean countered. "No. I've looked at everything. A few local women, a Laura and a Catherine committed suicide in front of a mirror, and a giant mirror fell on a guy named Dave, but uh, no Mary."
I huffed, sitting down in the chair across from Dean. "This sucks." I tore into a tiny muffin.
"Maybe we just haven't found it yet." Sam suggested.
"I've also been searching for strange deaths in the area, you know...eyeball bleeding, that sort of thing." Dean admitted. "There's nothing. Whatever's happening here, maybe it just ain't Mary."
"Maybe it's just a dead woman named Mary who wants to kick at the living." I suggested, tearing into another muffin.
Before anything more could be said, Sam's phone rang.
==DG==
I had an arm around Charlie, rubbing soothing circles on her back as she sobbed.
"And they found her on the bathroom floor. And her-her eyes. They were gone." Charlie explained through her tears.
I patted her back, squeezing reassuringly.
"I'm sorry." Sam comforted.
"And she said it." I looked up to the Winchesters. They had matching expressions. "I heard her say it. But it couldn't be because of that. I'm insane, right?"
"You're not insane." I assured her. "We promise."
"Oh God, that makes me feel so much worse." Charlie whimpered.
"Look. We think something's happening here. Something that can't be explained." Sam revealed.
"And we're gonna stop it but we could use your help." Dean asked.
==DG==
Charlie opened the window for Jill's room. I crawled in, walking over to the light switch. The Winchesters followed in behind me.
"What did you tell Jill's mom?" Sam asked Charlie. I was pulling out my own digital camera- fuck these things were old. How the fuck was this thing considering cutting edge just one decade ago?
"Just that I needed some time alone with Jill's pictures and things." She sighed. I flipped on my night vision. The entire room became green on the video screen. "I hate lying to her."
"Trust us, this is for the greater good." Dean assured. He nodded at me. "Hit the lights."
I flipped the switch.
"What are you guys looking for?" Charlie asked.
"We'll let you know as soon as we find it." Dean answered.
Sam held the camera out towards me. "Hey, night vision." I flipped the dial. "Perfect." He aimed it towards Dean, to be sure it was working. I stood behind the screen, looking at Dean.
"Do I look like Paris Hilton?" He asked, smirking.
Charlie and I shook our heads at him. Though I was grinning as I did it, because his face as he asked was funny.
So the three of us began searching the room for evidence. I made a point of scanning the door. It was odd to see this room, more so than before. I'd seen this room in my dream last night. I watched Jill die, now I stood in her room stalling before finding her killer. How fucked up is that?
"So I don't get it. I mean...the first victim didn't summon Mary, and the second victim did. How's she choosing them?" Sam asked.
"Beats me." Dean shrugged.
"What did she say it in the first place?" I asked Charlie.
The teen avoided my eyes. "It's just a joke."
"Well the jokes over now." I scolded. Yeah I knew fully well that it wasn't Charlie's fault, no matter what she'd done in the past. She didn't ask for her friend to die. I was just venting to get over the guilt I was feeling. I could've saved Jill I'd just gone to the mirror store instead of sticking around to research useless information.
"Yeah well somebody's gonna say it again, it's just a matter of time." Dean reminded.
"Hey." Sam called for our attention. "There's a black light in the trunk, right?"
"No." I pulled it out from my jacket pocket. "Thought we'd need it."
Sam nodded.
He went back to the mirror, taking it out to bring it to Jill's bed. Turning on the light, I ran it over the mirror. They all saw Mary's handprints, and the name she wrote in blood.
"Gary Bryman?" Charlie read off.
"You know who that is?" Sam asked.
"No." Charlie answered.
==DG==
Sam and I walked up to the bench where we'd left them. Sam sat beside Charlie, while I leaned over the back.
"So, Gary Bryman was an 8-year-old boy." Sam explained. "Two years ago he was killed in a hit and run. The car was described as a black Toyota Camry. But nobody got the plates or saw the driver."
"Oh my God." Charlie breathed out.
"What?" I asked.
"Jill drove that car." Charlie realized.
"We need to get back to your friend Donna's house." Dean stated.
==DG==
A quick ride in the Impala brought us back to the Shoemaker house. Charlie was talking to Donna as we went up to the bathroom.
I ran the blacklight over the back, showing off to the boys the name.
"Linda Shoemaker." Sam read off.
==DG==
Now we were talking to Donna for answers.
"Why are you asking me this?" She asked.
"Look, we're sorry, but it's important." Sam pressed.
"Yeah. Linda's my mom okay? She overdosed on sleeping pills, it was an accident, and that's it. I think you should leave." Donna requested.
"We're not trying to dredge up old feelings, we just want to know-"
"Get out of my house!" Donna yelled. She ran off upstairs.
"Oh my God. Do you really think her dad could've killed her mom?" Charlie asked.
I shrugged. "Maybe." Sam answered.
Charlie swallowed. She braced herself. "I think I should stick around."
"All right. Whatever you do, don't-" Dean stressed.
"Believe me, I won't say it." Charlie stressed back.
"Don't let Donna say it either." I stressed. "I mean it. She doesn't always go after the person who says it. She could go after anyone if she does."
Charlie nodded, a scared look in her eyes at the indirect threat.
==DG==
Dean was typing on the computer. I was typing on mine, looking up mirrors that had been tied into a murder investigation.
"Wait, wait, wait, you're doing a nationwide search?" Sam asked his brother.
"Yep. The NCIC, the FBI database- at this point any Mary who died in front of a mirror is good enough for me." Dean stated.
"But if she's haunting the town, she should have died in the town." Sam reminded him.
"Not if she died in front of the mirror." I pointed out. "Which is what I'm looking up."
"Why?"
"Because, there's this old superstition that mirrors could trap spirits. Not to mention that if our Mary died in front of it, I wouldn't be surprised if she left some of her blood in it. You've seen the handprints she's been leaving. My guess is the mirror was brought to the town." I looked over the laptop's screen to look at Dean. "So I'm really hopeful we're gonna find something."
"But if she's haunting the town-"
"I'm telling you there's nothing local, I've checked." Dean stressed. "So unless you got a better idea-"
"The way Mary's choosing her victims, it seems like there's a pattern."
"I know, I was thinking the same thing."
"It's obvious."
"With Mister Shoemaker and Jill's hit and run."
"Both had secrets where people died."
"Right. I mean there's a lot of folklore about mirrors-that they reveal all your lies, all your secrets, that they're a true reflection of your soul, which is why it's bad luck to break them." Sam agreed with me.
"So you need to have a big secret- like a really big secret where someone died, and Mary comes after you." I finished. "Whether you said her name or not."
"Take a look at this." Dean suddenly stated. He handed us printed pictures of our Bloody Mary.
"Looks like the same handprint." Sam pointed out.
"Who was she?"
"Her name was Mary Worthington-an unsolved murder in Fort Wayne, Indiana." Dean stated.
==DG==
Not long after, we were in the house of the detective of Mary's case.
"I was on the job for 35 years-Detective for most of that." The man was explaining. "Now everybody packs it in with a few loose ends, but the Mary Worthington murder- that one still gets me."
"What exactly happened?" Dean asked.
The man gave us all brief questioning looks. "You boys said you were reporters?"
"We know Mary was 19, lived by herself. We know she won a few local beauty contests, dreamt of getting out of Indiana, being an actress." Sam listed.
"And on the night of March 29th someone broke into her apartment and murdered her, cut out her eyes with a knife." I finished.
"That's right." The man nodded, seeming more relieved to tell us the story.
"See sir, when we asked you what happened, we wanted to know what you think happened." Sam pressed.
The man pulled out his old case files.
"Technically I'm not supposed to have a copy of this." He admitted. He turned the pages to find the one of the mirror. "Now see that there? T-R-E?"
"Yeah." Dean nodded.
"I think Mary was trying to spell out the name of her killer." The man stated.
"You know who it was?" Sam asked.
"Not for sure. But there was a local man, a surgeon-Trevor Sampson." The man turned another page, a black-in-white image of a man. "And I think her cut her up good."
"Why? Whoever killed her, they didn't just kill her. They tore out her eyes." I asked. "That's personal."
"Her diary mentioned a man that she was seeing. She called him by his initial, 'T'." The man explained. "Well, her last entry, she was gonna tell 'T's wife about their affair."
"Yeah but how do you know it was Sampson who killed her?" Dean asked.
"It's hard to say, but the way her eyes were cut out...it was almost professional." The man pointed out.
"But you could never prove it?" Dean asked.
"No. No prints, no witnesses. He was meticulous." The man admitted, sounding disappointed in himself for being unable to put it all together for a proper case.
"Is he still alive?" Dean asked.
"Nope." The man sighed, sitting down in his chair. "If you ask me, Mary spent her last living moments trying to expose this guy's secret. But she never could."
"Where's she buried?" Sam asked.
"She wasn't. She was cremated." The man answered.
"The mirror then?" I asked. "Where did it go?"
"It's not in some evidence lockup somewhere is it?" Dean asked.
"Ah, no. It was returned to Mary's family a long time ago." The man answered.
"You have the names of her family by any chance?"
==DG==
"Oh really? Ah that's too bad Mr. Worthington. I would have paid a lot for that mirror. Okay, well maybe next time. All right, thanks." Sam hung up.
"So?" Dean prompted.
"So that was Mary's brother. The mirror was in the family for years, until he sold it one week ago to a store called Estate Antiques." Sam laughed, dryly. "A store in Toledo."
"So she's tied to the mirror itself, not just the legend." I stated.
"Yeah." Sam agreed.
"Hey. Raven. What was that superstition about mirrors you were saying earlier? That they could capture spirits?" Dean asked.
"Yeah there is." I answered.
"Yeah I remember it too, when someone would die in a house people would cover up the mirrors so the ghost wouldn't get trapped." Sam explained.
"So Mary dies in front of a mirror, and it draws in her spirit." Dean realized.
"Yeah but how could she move through like a hundred different mirrors?" Sam asked.
"The legend probably has some tie into it. If this mirror is in a store, I bet she doesn't get a lot of people with dark secrets looking there." I theorized.
"I don't know, but if the mirror is the source, I say we find it and smash it." Dean stated.
"Yeah, I don't know, maybe." His phone rang. "Hello...Charlie?"
==DG==
I was putting a sheet over the TV, taking down the other reflective surfaces with Dean. The whole process of covering up mirrors was a familiar one to me, but I ignored the dark memories behind them. Charlie was sitting on the bed, ducked under her sweater. Sam was beside her, being a comfort.
"Hey, hey it's ok. Hey, you can open up your eyes Charlie." Sam assured. "It's okay, all right?" Charlie slowly peaked her head out of the sweater. "Now listen. You're gonna stay right here on this bed, and you're not gonna look at glass, or anything else that has a reflection, okay? And as long as you do that, she cannot get you."
"But I can't keep that up forever." Charlie reminded Sam, in a devastated voice. "I'm gonna die, aren't I?"
"Not if we have any say about it." I promised her. Sitting beside her, I took hold of her hand. She squeezed it back tightly.
"All right Charlie. We need to know what happened." Dean stated, kneeling in front of her.
"We were in the bathroom. Donna said it." Charlie avoided the question.
I squeezed her hand, in comfort and correction.
"That's not what we're talking about." Dean pointed out to her. "Something happened, didn't it? In your life...a secret...where someone got hurt. Can you tell us about it?"
"I had this boyfriend. I loved him. But he kind of scared me too, you know? And one night, at his house, we got in this fight. Then I broke up with him, and he got upset, and he said he needed me and he loved me, and he said 'Charlie, if you walk out that door right now, I'm gonna kill myself'." Charlie squeezed my hand tighter. I squeezed back in reassurance, adding my other hand. "And you know what I said? I said 'Go ahead'. And I left." She looked up at me. "How could I say that? How could I leave him like that?" She sniffled, tears falling down her face. "I just...I didn't believe him, you know? I should have."
She pushed her head into her knees, sobbing now.
==DG==
We stuck around until Charlie calmed down. We told her we'd fix this, and left. If anything happened we told her to call Sam.
"You know her boyfriend killing himself, that's not really Charlie's fault." Dean pointed out.
"You know as well as I do spirits don't exactly see shades of gray, Dean." Sam countered. "Charlie had a secret, someone died, that's good enough for Mary."
"I guess." Dean huffed.
"You know, I've been thinking. It might not be enough to just smash that mirror." Sam suggested.
I sat up in my seat, leaning on the dividing seat.
"Why, what do you mean?" Dean asked.
"Well Mary's hard to pin down, right? I mean she moves around from mirror to mirror so who's to say that she's not just gonna keep hiding in them forever? So maybe we should try to pin her down, you know, summon her to her mirror and then smash it." Sam explained.
"Well how do you know that's going to work?" Dean asked.
"I don't, not for sure." Sam admitted.
"Well who's gonna summon her?"
"Me." I stated. "I'll do it."
I will take the Ring to Mordor.
"No, Raven, it's me. She'll come after me." Sam argued.
"It needs to be me-"
"You know what, that's it." Dean pulled the Impala over. He parked it, giving us both scolding looks. "This is about Jessica, isn't it?"
Neither of us said anything.
"You think that's your dirty little secret that you killed her somehow?" Dean asked Sam.
I knew it was coming.
I did nothing.
"Sam, this has got to stop, man. I mean, the nightmares and calling her name out in the middle of the night-it's gonna kill you." Dean argued. "Now listen to me-It wasn't your fault. If you wanna blame something, then blame the thing that killed her."
I knew he was coming.
I did nothing.
"Or hell, why don't you take a swing at me?" Dean asked. I looked up at him. "I mean I'm the one that dragged you away from her in the first place."
"I don't blame you." Sam replied.
"It wasn't on you." I agreed.
"Well you shouldn't blame yourself, because there's nothing you could've done." Dean argued to Sam.
"I could've warned her." Sam argued.
I could've saved her.
"About what? You didn't know what was gonna happen!"
I did.
I traveled from another reality was this was nothing but a TV show and I saw it.
And when I came here, I did nothing to stop it.
Not a damn thing.
"And besides, all of this isn't a secret, I mean I know all about it." Dean pointed out. "It's not gonna work with Mary anyway." He went for the gear shift.
"...yes it is." I spoke up.
Sam looked up at me that time.
I swallowed.
He seemed to be asking me something with his eyes, and I replied in honesty. 'I knew too.' He took a deep breath, so heavy his shoulders heaved with it.
"No you don't." Sam spoke up.
"I don't what?" Dean asked.
"You don't know all about it. I haven't told you everything." Sam admitted. He glanced at me. "Neither of us have."
"What are you talking about?" Dean looked at the two of us.
"Well it wouldn't really be a secret if I told you, would it?" Sam countered.
"Raven." Dean pressed, surprised by Sam's argument. "Do you know what it is?"
I didn't answer.
"You know what? Fine. Whatever it is, I don't care." Dean argued. "No. I don't like it. It's not gonna happen, forget it."
"Dean, that girl back there is going to die unless we do something about it." Sam stressed. "And you know what? Who knows how many more people are gonna die after that? Now we're doing this. You've got to let me do this."
"Sam-"
"No Raven, it needs to be me." Sam stressed.
"But I-"
"Raven. It's done."
==DG==
We made it to the store. Sam picked the lock open/
The store was full of mirrors. Why they expected it to be easy, I'll never know.
"Well...that's just great." Dean huffed. He pulled out printed pictures of Mary. he handed one to Sam and the other to me. "All right let's start looking."
We split up.
As I looked at mirrors, I had memories of the past coming to me. I used to be trapped in a mirror. Or, rather the thing controlling me only let me be seen from a mirror. In another reality I was trapped for fifty years as a vampire, and despite all the bullshit about vampires and mirrors she could always be seen in one. It's only the silver backed ones that they're invisible in. How fucking awful.
But she'd let some people see me in the mirror. She'd enchant one to let them see 'the person inside', and the point at me. She mock and joke and torment me until the other person broke.
She'd kill people in front of mirrors to further fuck them up. Make them watch their own murder. To be made to watch as my own body went against the one belief I really had: protecting people.
She'd look in one for ages after, forcing me to stare at the blood dripping off my chin. She'd never let it go to waste. She would lick up every last drop- gorge herself on blood. Even though I had no real body, it made me sick. I was gagging but she was giggling.
It was her favorite game.
I fucking hated Blood Mary.
"Maybe they've already sold it." Dean's voice broke me out of the horror of the past.
I jumped in my own skin. Boy was that a good relief, to have control over my own body.
"I don't think so." Sam called out.
My legs brought me over to where the boys were waiting.
"That's it." Dean sighed at the sight of the mirror. "You sure about this?"
"Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary." Sam picked up a crowbar. I raised my Bag. "Bloody Mary."
Nothing happened.
Well except for the police car coming.
"I'll go check that out. Stay here, be careful." Dean stated. He moved towards the front door. "Smash anything that moves." He reminded us. He left.
Sam huffed. "Raven you should go too."
"No." I argued.
"She'll come for me."
"She'll come for us." I argued sternly. "So shut up and- there!" I pointed at the mirror Mary appeared in.
Sam smashed it with the crowbar. "Watch out!" He pointed to the one beside me.
I smashed it with my Bag.
"Come on." Sam taunted. "Come into this one." He twisted the crowbar in his grip.
I stared at my own reflection-
She grinned.
==DG==
"Good morning, Toy. How'd you sleep?"
'I never do.'
==DG==
"Oh you're just so little!" She laughed, brushing hair behind the child's ear. "But I have one question for Mommy and Daddy. Which kid do they like more?"
She grinned in the mirror.
'Please just stop. Make it all stop.'
==DG==
'Just one night...you can take a break for one night...'
"You know what, Toy? I really can't. Our Pet needs a walk. Don't you, Pet?"
"Shut up, monster."
'Please...he doesn't need this. He already fed yesterday. He doesn't need more.'
"Of course he does. I won't let my Pet go hungry."
I sobbed. My tears burned...which is odd...I've never felt my tears in here before...
==DG==
Sam was watching the reflection. Nothing was happening. Mary had just gone. He noticed Raven's reflection smirking, which wasn't right.
He panicked when he saw her eyes bleeding.
He whirled around. Raven was staring at the mirror, eyes wide in fear. She dropped her purse. She had tear tracks of blood on her cheeks, and the veins beneath her cheeks were blue.
"Raven!" Sam yelled.
Raven gasped. She collapsed to her knees, shaking. She kept gasping, her hands reaching up to her chest. She started clawing at it, like Mary was suffocating her.
"It's your fault." Raven's own voice came out from the mirror.
Sam turned to the reflection. It was glaring down at Raven in disgust, the blood pouring faster from the eyes.
"You killed them." Reflection Raven spat. Raven on the floor gasping again. "You killed all of them."
Sam raised up his crowbar. His own reflection snapped to him, and suddenly Sam couldn't move.
"You killed Jessica." His reflection spat. Sam fell to his knees beside Raven. He could feel the blood trickling from the corners of his eyes. "You never told her the truth, who you really were."
"You've alway lied." Reflection Raven spat. "To everyone. All you've ever done is lie and lie and lie."
Sam gasped, as he felt his chest compress and his eyeballs were squeezed.
"But it's more than that, isn't it." Both Reflections stated. "Those nightmares you've been having."
"Of Jessica." Reflection Sam spat.
"Of Shoemaker, and Jill, screaming-"
"-burning-"
"Dying." They both hissed.
"You've been having them for weeks!" Raven snapped.
"You had them days before Jessica died, didn't you!" Reflection Sam snapped.
Sam couldn't say anything- truth or lie.
Raven was still gasping beside him.
"You're so desperate to ignore them." The reflections taunted. "Pretend they're only dreams. How could you ignore them like that?"
"How could you leave her alone to die?"
"How could you not even bother to try?"
"You dreamt it would happen!"
Dean smashed the mirror.
==DG==
Sam gasped out as it stopped.
He looked over, seeing Raven still curled in a ball on the floor.
"Sam, Sammy!" Dean called out. He grabbed Sam's face in his hands, eyeing the trails of blood.
"It's Sam." He corrected. "Raven?"
"Ugh." She whimpered.
"God, are you okay?" Dean asked.
"Uh, yeah." Sam groaned as his body settled back to normal.
"Come on, come on." Dean lifted Sam to his feet.
Raven grabbed the nearby metal fencing. She started to drag herself to her knees, panting harshly.
"Raven you good?" Dean asked.
The hunter flinched away at the question. She choked on a yelp, wheezing it out. "Do-Don't."
The cracking of glass came from behind them.
Dean and Sam has barely turned around when Raven lashed out. She grabbed the closest mirror to her, pushing herself to her feet. She showed the crawling Mary her reflection.
The ghost pushed herself to her feet. She flinched away from the reflection.
"You killed them!" The Reflection Mary shrieked. Ghost Mary began to choke. "All those people! You killed them!"
She shattered into red glass.
Raven threw the mirror aside, letting it shatter on top of Mary's shards. "Bitch." She exhaled.
"Hey Sam, Raven?"
"Yeah?"
"What."
"This has got to be like...what? 600 years of bad luck?" Dean asked.
Sam and Raven laughed tiredly.
==DG==
They took Charlie home.
Dean pulled up in front of her house.
"So this is really over?" Charlie asked.
Dean nodded. "Yeah, it's over." He promised.
"Thank you." Charlie replied. Dean reached to shake her hand. Charlie did so then got out of the car.
"Charlie?" Sam called. The teen turned around. "Your boyfriend's death...you really should try to forgive yourself. No matter what you did, you probably couldn't have stopped it. Sometimes bad things just happen." He assured her.
Raven poked her head out. "It was his choice- not yours. It's not your fault."
Charlie smiled, grateful.
==DG==
As they drove out of town, Raven fell asleep.
She dreamt about Bloody Mary.
The ghost was glaring at her. Raven wouldn't let herself be cowed by the ghost.
"You killed them." Mary hissed.
"And someday I'll come to terms with that." Raven countered. "Killing me doesn't make it better. It just makes another person dead."
Mary screamed.
Raven flicked her nose.
The ghost shattered again.
Raven stared down, stoic, at the pieces.
"You're not better than me." Raven remarked. "I'm not better than you. We're both monsters, aren't we?"
The pieces didn't answer.
Raven-in her dream-sighed. "Yeah. That's what I thought you'd say."
==DG==
AN: Sorry this took forever! School, trip out of country, other stories. Damaged Goods ended up being far back on the priority list.
What I'm not sorry for is any pain that occurred to you in this chapter. That makes me happy.